SingTel Optus may control 25 per cent of Australia's $17 billion fixed-line telecommunications market in the next six years, JP Morgan estimates show.
If SingTel's bid for the $10 billion-plus national broadband succeeds, the country's second-biggest telco could slice nine percentage points from Telstra's 69 per cent share of the retail and wholesale fixed-line market in that time, The Australian Financial Review reports.
Insiders have told Fairfax that the government is ready to announce its decision on the winner of the bid to build the national broadband network when the Prime Minister returns from his overseas trip, and the surprise front-runner is Melbourne group Acacia.
JP Morgan analyst Laurent Horrut told the paper Telstra would not be reincorporated into the process and the telco could still face operational separation of its entire local network and backhaul operations from the rest of its businesses.
DIRECTORS of some of Australia's most powerful companies and organisations -- including Leightons, the Macquarie Infrastructure Group and the ABC -- have emerged as backers of the mysterious Acacia syndicate which wants a slice of the Rudd Government's $15 billion broadband network.
Acacia, which also counts former Telstra Countrywide chief Doug Campbell as an investor, will lodge a state-based bid to cover Victoria with broadband, in an effort to grab part of the $4.7 billion in taxpayer funds on offer from the Government, people familiar with the project said.
An investigation by The Australian has revealed that investors in the $3 million Acacia shelf company include directors of KPMG, Highpoint Property Group and the founders of online employment giant Seek to make up what had been dubbed the "Melbourne Mafia" bid.
It would be interesting to try and find out if either the chair or CEO have any personal contacts within this "club".
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